Sustained Dialogue
Mission Statement
Sustained Dialogue is a systematic, prolonged dialogue among small groups of citizens committed to changing conflicting relationships, ending conflict, and building peace. Sustained Dialogue has five different phases for dialogue, and they are:
1. The individuals deciding that they want change and wanting to be a part of a group to implement the changes.
2. Understanding everyone's interests and identities.
3. Gaining a sense of interdependence by connecting to these identities and interests.
4. Realizing individual and collective power to makes changes.
5. Implementing the changes and improving interactions.
Dickinson College is one of the few college campuses in the country to have a branch of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue. The Dickinson branch of Sustained Dialogue has between 30-40 people, with half active members. There are three or four groups that have sustained dialogue every other week, according to the group president, Mara Waldhorn. Sustained Dialogue was originally founded by Hal Saunders, and in 2002 he incorporated Sustained Dialogue as an institute in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation and its President, David Matthews. To read more about The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, please visit their website.
Events
According to Mara Waldhorn, the current Sustained Dialogue President at Dickinson, the group first conducts a survey (this helps them make each group diverse). They then give the name of the groups to a moderator and reserve rooms. The moderators make sure that the 5 phases listed above are achieved in each meeting. The most notable event that the group has on campus is the kick-off dinner in the beginning of the year. At this dinner, the group recruits people and sets them up in groups
Effectiveness
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, Mara Waldhorn gave the organization a 2. She explains this rating by stating the group "does not have an effective way of bringing in a diverse group of people to come and talk".
Problems/Dilemmas
The group has a couple main problems that it faces on campus. Mara Waldhorn claims that attracting the "mainstream" Dickinson College students to come in and talk is very hard. She also says that in her opinion, it is hard to get a large minority crowd because they are "always 'talked to death', and do not want to talk anymore".
This page by Melissa Paettie
